One-step catechol-based biomimetic strategy to fabricate organic-inorganic hybrid coatings on PTFE flat membrane for the improvement of hydrophilicity and fouling resistance

Recently, plant polyphenols had been proved to be potential candidates for dopamine because of their low-cost and similar coating ability. In this paper, a facile method was developed to modify the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) flat microfiltration (MF) membrane via the co-deposition of catechol (CA) and silane coupling agent for the improvements of hydrophilicity and anti-fouling property. The membrane performance can be tuned by changing the concentration of silane coupling agent. After using this cheap and simple modification method, the PTFE flat membrane was endowed with excellent hydrophilicity, high water permeation flux and superior anti-fouling property. Moreover, interestingly, a colorless membrane was obtained by this method. Then, the anti-fouling test was conducted on the modified PTFE flat membranes. The as-prepared hydrophilic PTFE flat membranes possess excellent bovine serum albumin (BSA) fouling resistance. Finally, the surface stability of the modified membrane was studied and the modified membrane shows excellent stability under the acidic condition but weak to strong alkali.